photographs by Brian Willson Alder Flycatcher Black-and-White Warbler Ovenbird Yellow Warbler Chestnut-sided Warbler Common Yellowthroat Field Sparrow Scarlet Tanager Ovenbird Chestnut-sided Warbler Eastern Kingbird Gray Catbird Scarlet Tanager Ruby-throated Hummingbird

photograph and text by Brian Willson At Beech Hill in Rockport, as April turns to May, if you listen closely you’ll hear a soft, insect-like trill that ends in a little hiccup. To me, it’s a hopeful, soothing sound: the song of the Savannah sparrow—a grasslands bird that nests each spring on the hill’s long […]

photographs and text by Brian Willson On my first full spring in Maine years ago—I’ve surely told this story before—I was slowly sneaking up on a booming grouse in hopes of witnessing what I’d heard was a remarkable spring display. I’d heard it booming just over a wooded rise and had sunk to my belly […]

photographs and text by Brian Willson Jack and I crossed paths with a friendly, older birding couple on our Beech Hill hike this morning. I could tell they were birders by their binoculars. We met them just as I’d heard the blackpoll warbler singing again from across Beech Hill Road—whose voice I pointed out to […]

text and haiku by Kristen Lindquist We decided to embark on a staff outing up Beech Hill today, despite what we call 100% humidity: light rain and heavy fog. The barrens were bright with blooming blueberries, sign of hope for this summer’s harvest. I even saw some bees among them, undaunted by the wet. Something […]

photographs and text by Brian Willson “Whispering while you cuddle near me, whispering so no one can hear me…” On this calm, still, partly cloudy day, my dog and I stopped at a turn on the Beech Hill trail to listen to something. We both heard it—a soft scraping sound in the depths of a […]